The SMRC, or Southern Mindanao Regional Committee is one of five NPA Regional Commands on Mindanao. When discussing the SMRC one man usually comes to mind, Leonicio Pitao, better known by his nom de guerre, "Ka Parago." Pitao is a living legend here on Mindanao and is grudgingly admired by more than a few within the AFP for his ability to have brokered a favourable deal with then newly elected Mayor Rodrigo "Roddy" Duterte in 1988. In exchange for 40% of Davao City and a healthy cash stipend on a monthly basis Pitao agred to relegate all NPA activity to that 40%, all of which were rural, outlying and undeveloped Districts, three in particular:
1) Paquibato
2) Toril
3) Calinan
and part of two others:
1) Baguio
2) Marilog
Before that deal was reached Davao City was an open battlefield at all hours of the day. Right Wing para militaries liked the infamous Alsa Masa (Masses Arise) did battle, as did the NPA, in most corners of the island's largest population centre. After the deal however, Davao City has become the island's, if not the nation's safest city. Of course Duterte's Davao Death Squad (see my two part series "You Can Die at Anytime: Davao Death Squad Through the Eyes of HRW") took ccare of the crime as well.
Over the years Pitao has weathered many storms, the physical purges of the mid-80s, the ideological purges of the early-90s under the NPA/CPP Re-affirmist scheme, an incarceration after being captured while visiting his family on All Souls Day 2, and mostly recently, the brutal Extra-Judicial Killing of his daughter Rebelyn, a substitute teacher with no political or militant involvement in March of 2009. Today Leonicio Pitao commands the the SEMRC's military operations as Secretary of its Military Command. He also personally command's the operations Command's company sized military entity, the PBC1, or 1st Pulang Bagani Company (Pulang Bagani meaning "Red Warrior"). From a set of rotating base camps high up the slopes of Mount Apo, the nation's highest peak, the NPA in Davao City remains just as firmly entrenched as it has ever been since withdrawing to the city's outer limits in 1988.
On October 1st, 2011, Pitao opened up the Fourth Quarter of 2011 by publicly ridiculing the Armed Forces of the Philippines, or AFP, for blaming the NPA for the abduction, and presumed killing of two local tribal leaders. The two missing men:
1) Datu Lorenzo Pendio
2) Datu Marcelino Gumatao
went missing on...According to the AFP's Colonel Lyndon Paniza, Commanding Officer of the 1003rd Infantry Brigade, the men were killed for not paying "Revolutionary Taxes," the politically correct euphanism used to tidy up rank extortion. Pitao claims that the NPA does not force civilians to pay "Sablag," NPA-speak for "rank extortion." Of course Pitao is lying through his teeth but hey, nobody's hands are clean on this island.
Pitao, not suprisingly, accuses Datu Ruben Labawan of doing his master's bidding. The "master" would of course be Colonel Paniza. Paniza's 1003rd Infantry Brigade entered into a pact with Datu Labawan back in 2002 when the brigade's then-Commanding Officer, Colonel Eduardo Rosario sanctioned an extant tribal paramilitary and commissioned it to operate against the NPA. Labawan, and his comrade in arms, Joel Unad then held a big to do where they whored their culture by not only declaring Rosario to be a tribal chieftain ("Datu"), but then-Secretary of the Department of National Defense, the late Angelo Reyes as well. Colonel cum Datu Rosario then naturally gave free rein to Unad and Labawan.
Their organisation, ATADI, or, Ata Tribal Association of Davao Incorporated, then used their paramilitary, the Alamara, to move peasants, including fellow tribesmen, off of land they planned to claim on the CADT Program (Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title), with an eye on both logging AND mining. The Alamara was dissolved under pressure from human rights groups but only in name because its members were simply enrolled in the AFP's CAA Program as CAFGU soldiers. It was only a matter of months before the Alamara slash CAFGU became the "Bagani Long Range Platoons." Different name, same game.
Pitao is also saying, or rather he said on October 1st, that the barangay captains of Paquibato District's Barangays Lumiad, Salapawan, Malibog, Tapak AND Mapula each got P250,000 ($5,700) for the barangay level approval of two extant mining exploration applications targeting those barangays. The applications, for:
1) Alberto Mining Corporation
2) Penson's Mining Corporation
Many of those same barangay captains, certainly Jaime Manyawron of Mapula and Domingo Boycala of Salapawan are ATADI front men. Pitao's problems with ATADI are more than a decade old. In theast of several attempts on Datu Ruben Labawan's life, on August 2nd, 2010, he and some other high ranking datus were en route to a "payong-payong" (community meeting) at the 1003rd Headquarters when their group of motorcycles was ambushed by Pitao's NPA guerillas who ended up killing two AFP soldiers deployed as a security detail to Labawan, one of which just happened to be his brother. So...Pitao says that the two abducted men were actually NPA supporters qho were kidnapped, and presumably killed, by ATADI so as to turn locals against the NPA and ignite a tribal war, or "Pangayaw."
Whomever abducted the two men, at this point it really doesn't matter, killed them.
No comments:
Post a Comment